Sermon, Advent 2B, Wed Dec 2/Sun Dec 6, 2020

2 Peter 3:8-15a The day of the Lord

8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.[a]

11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.[b] That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

14 So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. 15 Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom that God gave him.

Mark 1:1-8 John the Baptist prepares the way

The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah,[a] the Son of God,[b] 2 as it is written in Isaiah the prophet:

‘I will send my messenger ahead of you,
    who will prepare your way’[c] –
3 ‘a voice of one calling in the wilderness,
“Prepare the way for the Lord,
    make straight paths for him.”’[d]

4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptised by him in the River Jordan. 6 John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt round his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And this was his message: ‘After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptise you with[e] water, but he will baptise you with[f] the Holy Spirit.’

This year’s COVID restriction announcements make me think of John the Baptist. When Professor Spurrier and Premier get on the telly to announce the big news of a new set of COVID restrictions, a hive of responses is set in motion. The announcement is made, and a trail of decisions and events get moving across the state.

That is like John the Baptist. He is the announcer of the new thing God is doing across his world – not a restriction of life but a resurrection to life.

John announces God’s promised Saviour to the world. A flurry of activity gets moving. Jesus of Nazareth’s life, teaching, dying and rising are now in motion. God’s end time has begun.

John got a big response to his announcement. According to Mark, thousands of city dwellers and regional people headed off to the Jordan river near Jericho – about 25 km’s out of the city (Sedan from Nuri).

They came to respond to the announcement of God’s new action. Repentance was the response. As the Lord makes his holy presence and promises known, the right and good response is to repent before him– in good faith, to turn around, to turn away from mere daily concerns, any self-interest, hurtful words and deeds, personal needs or even national concerns. By faith, the people went down to the river to be immersed in this new era, this new time of God’s promise.

It was a big response to a big announcement. It would be like us turning off the TV, leaving our COVID worries, anger, frustrations and questions behind, leaving our worries and anger about Chinese government’s actions behind, leaving our own likes, dislikes, disappointments, hurts and illnesses behind and simply heading out to the water; seeking the promise of the Lord God in this preacher man so as to enter fully into what the Lord is now doing.

Would you do it? I am not sure I would go out to Sedan and be dunked in Graetz Creek (if there was ever any water in it!). I am not sure I would drop everything and give up all my concerns and worries and sins and turn to this preacher of the beginning of end time coming of God.

Peter speaks to get us moving though…..

……you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4 They will say, ‘Where is this “coming” he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.’

Am I a ‘scoffer”: ‘To scoff: To mock a person or an idea,; to deceive, to deride, put down, dismiss…..

Peter is clear: there will be plenty of people who scoff at all this talk of the Lord doing something new, something final, something full.

There will be plenty of people who will dismiss Jesus and his promises, and instead, follow their own promises, needs, concerns, ideas, beliefs and plans.

Peter knows this for sure. He has done this very thing himself, we hear in the gospels. Peter’s seen this happen to the one whom John announced – Jesus was roundly scoffed at by most. He still is.

This is our danger too. Like when those COVID restrictions are announced and within a week or two we are forgetting to follow them or even starting to scoff at them.

We who live this life of long-term faith in Jesus’, often in tough circumstances, can simply NOT “look forward to the day of God”, as Peter encourages, and instead just get on with our own day, day after day.

We can catch ourselves saying, “Where is this promised coming of Jesus? Everything is just going on as it always has. Nothing much has changed and there is no need to take this word of John or the one he announces seriously in my life”.

Peter has some clear words for us.

8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

It has been a very long time since God’s first advent – his first coming announced by John. It has been 2000 years since the end began! For lots of people in our community, it has been 70 or 80 or more years of living in the beginning time toward the end time.

We can get sleepy or a bit ‘scoffy’. But God’s thousand years of days is a click of the fingers, says Peter. So, a long time for us is no time at all for him. He patiently waits for his world rather than destroy it.

So patient, is he, that this Day of the Lord, this final and full completion of all things by Jesus seems to be a moving target. Peter suggests that God’s final appearing, Jesus ‘apocalypse’, or his ‘eschaton’ – his final ‘coming to us’ is not set in concrete.

Jesus waits. He waits in love. He wants everybody in that great banquet hall of peace and joy in the Father’s presence.

Hear today that he waits for you. He is waiting for you to again take his words seriously and live in them in any kind of day, even these days.

He waits for you to turn away from yourself and turn to him in honesty and humility. He waits for you to go back to the Jordan, back to that day when you were immersed in his promises and came up new – the day you were baptised into Jesus death and resurrection community.

Why? Because….

10 …the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.

For Peter, the end will be like a bushfire laying our lives bare. Everything we know and are will be completely scorched and completely made new. Peter says there will be;

“new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” (2 Peter 1:13).

 The whole New Testament agrees. They agree that some kind of cataclysmic event that everyone will experience will accompany God finally completing all things.

Truth is that 1) this Day of the Lord will surely come.2) There will be an end and the Lord will be the one ending it, and 3) This day is not merely an event it is a person!

That is the heart of the Bible’s view of the ‘end times’ and the ‘day of the Lord’, the ‘Apocalypse’, the ‘Eschaton’, or ‘Armageddon’ and the like. These are not hocus pocus or spooky events.

These words centre around, are done by and describe a person. They all describe this Jesus whom John first announced. They describe that this person is here and will one day be fully and finally present in all power and glory for all to see.

These Word of the Spirit are said not to produce fear in us who have been to the Jordan in baptism and faith, but to give us the light-filled hope over our who life, no matter what our worries, concerns, sins, disappointments or sicknesses may be.

Friend, go back to the Jordan today. In that water; that genuine scorching of all your darkness and idol making and chasing heart; that genuine re-birth of your body, mind and spirit; that moment of turning to Jesus, and all the other moments when you turn to him and take his words seriously; that trust in what he has done in you and still continues to do in you in his new creation. Go back there.

We can hear this big announcement. We can lean forward into this Day of the Lord. It is his day. It will be your finest day.

How do we live in this good day’s hope?

14 ,…. dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. 15 Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation,….

Friend, look forward and long for and live in this hope of this day for this world and you.

The big announcement is made.

His call to repent and trust is here.

His new creation mission is on the move, and you are part of it.